Champion Challenge Kicks Off With Team USA Women's Win

Notre Dame men get past Jacksonville in scrimmage

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The U.S. women's
national team kicked off 2012 Champion Challenge with a bang
— and quickly.

Less than 30 seconds into the seventh annual US Lacrosse event
at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Florida, Katrina Dowd
isolated behind the cage, charged from behind and fired a shot past
England goaltender Sally Keogh, giving Team USA an advantage it
didn't relinquish the rest of the night. Behind a 13-for-23
first-half shooting effort and five assists from Corey Donohoe, the
U.S. topped England, 18-4, in the weekend's opener.

"We moved the ball really, really well in the first half. We
dominated the play of the game pretty much, from the defensive end
all the way through the offensive end," U.S. coach Ricky Fried
said. "The disappointing part was the second half; we didn't shoot
as well as we would have liked. We got caught up in the score a
little bit, and relaxed a little more than we should've. But a good
learning experience. It's the first step of two-and-a-half games
for everybody to play this weekend."

Team USA plays split-squad games Saturday evening against
national runner-up Maryland (5 and 7 p.m.), and on Sunday the team
faces the defending national champions Northwestern (11 a.m. ESPN3,
re-air 10 p.m. on ESPNU). But Friday night's contest started a
critical weekend for the women's national team, as it marks this
group's final gathering before the 38-player 2011-12 roster is
trimmed to 24 in preparation for a summer competition tour in
Oshawa, Canada, host of the 2013 Federation of International
Lacrosse (FIL). This was the first time the team had played
together since the Stars & Stripes Weekend in October, and the
first time the women's national team faced international
competition.

"This weekend is big," Fried said. "This is kind of a
culmination of things, where we see who is starting to understand
what we want to do. They can all execute, obviously, at a really
high level. They're all very good players. We're looking for, in
this case, the 24 best players that play together. Who complements
each other well? Who's in the right place? Who's doing the little
things consistently, as opposed to just the things they're capable
of doing?

"The biggest thing is that they play really well together as a
group. While they're all trying to attain the same goal of making
the next World Cup Team, they also realize it's about something a
little bit bigger — the national team in general — and
they're willing to sacrifice some personal goals to make sure the
team is going well. A lot of people look at national teams and
think All-Star team and individual players. The biggest thing we
want to take away is watching how disciplined our team can be
playing together, and not focusing on individual results."

At the same time, it was hard to ignore the performance by
Donohoe, who was the night's star and set up scores by Dowd, Casey
Ancarrow, Danielle Etrasco and Laura Zimmerman (twice). What was
working for Donohoe?

"Just open cutters, making the extra pass to get the open look,"
Donohoe said. "When you're playing with these top-level women,
everyone makes each other look so good. People are cutting if the
timing is down right, and it's easy for me to find them. They're
doing the hard part, they're getting open, they're making the cut.
The offense was just flowing really well, and when you get in
motions like that, you get the momentum going and it works. That's
what it was: Everyone playing really well together. The biggest
thing is playing as a team and focusing on our system, on the
offensive and defensive ends. When we do that, everyone looks good.
Really just playing together, making your teammates look better,
taking the opportunities when you have it."

Thirty minutes after the start of the USA-England game, the
Notre Dame men started a five-quarter scrimmage against
Jacksonville on an adjacent field at the Wide World of Sports
Complex. The Irish prevailed 12-6.

Practice uniforms were worn but the play had a real-game feel.
Coaches screamed instructions and after a stall warning was called
on Jacksonville in the first quarter with the score tied at one,
the Dolphins bench yelled "They're playing good defense," about
Notre Dame's traditionally strong unit.

The first quarter ended knotted at one and neither team got any
offense in the second until 7:59 left when Jacksonville freshman
attackman Ari Waffle finished a tic-tac-toe play on the crease to
beat Notre Dame goalie John Kemp. The Dolphins led 3-2 at halftime
and Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan was clearly not pleased. During
a timeout in the first half, he let his offense know it, telling
them to move the ball and playing simple and smart instead of
"trying to re-invent the game of lacrosse."

Notre Dame only broke the game open with a 4-0 third quarter
that featured two goals from sophomore attackman Westy Hopkins, who
finished with a game-high four scores. Junior attackman Ryan Foley
also looked strong for the Irish with two goals. The Irish added
four goals in the fourth. Kemp unofficially made five saves in a
full five quarters in goal.

For Jacksonville and first-year head coach Guy Van Arsdale the
scrimmage marked the first real competition for the Dolphins since
the new coaching staff came on board in August. They had no
scheduled fall ball scrimmages. Van Arsdale said after the game he
was pleased with the effort. David Goldman led in scoring with two
goals.

"We really competed," Van Arsdale said. "Our guys held up well.
It's a great event for our kids to have and play an opponent like
Notre Dame that's so well coached and so talented. I think we're
going to be competitive."

The Dolphins were to bus three hours back north to Jacksonville
late Friday night into Saturday morning. But Notre Dame will remain
for a combined practice with the U.S. men's national team at 4:30
p.m. Saturday. Four other games -- the English women's national
team plays Syracuse and Northwestern, and the U.S. women's national
team's pair against Maryland -- are also on tap Saturday, along
with national team youth and coaching clinics.